Ghosts Of The Past | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 20: Possessive Kisses and A Horrifying Question

Small disclaimer: like I said at the beginning of the book, I would have to change some small things because of how I wrote chapter 76 of Forgotten Ghost. In this chapter there are some of those changes concerning the whole prison break. So before you comment on that it's not correct, just know it's because of my first book :)

Mason called half an hour later, almost three hours after they called him, saying the only thing close right now was an old SHIELD safe house. It was tricky, since everyone knew about this safe house after SHIELD got exposed, but they weren't looking forward to sleeping in the car either.

So Katya changed directions and drove south instead after Natasha tossed the phone out the window so it couldn't be traced.

She didn't say much. In fact, she said nothing. Not unusual, but Katya wanted to make sure that wasn't because she felt bad still.

''How are you feeling now?''

''Exhausted.'' Natasha had pulled both feet onto the seat with her, facing the passenger's seat window. She wasn't asleep - Katya could see the reflection of her face in the glass - but not alert either. At her words, she turned her head and gave a smile. ''But no longer lightheaded if that's what you're aiming for.''

Katya smiled, reaching over and momentarily placing a hand on her knee. ''Good. There's more food in there if you need it.'' She nodded to the plastic bag by her feet.

Natasha's heart warmed at the concern and thankfulness, even if she wasn't hungry in the least. ''Thank you, honey.'' Usually, it was her taking care of Katya, but she didn't mind it being the other way around for once, even though she hated being babied. ''Tell me what you're thinking about.''

''Nothing I want to talk about. I just want to take a shower and sleep.'' They both knew exactly what she thought about and why she'd been silent the whole time, chewing on her lip.

Natasha turned back to face the windshield. ''Me too.''

The apartment was in a semi-big city. The crowds perfect to hide in. It was nowhere as big as Budapest, but their apartment on the top floor of the four-story apartment building was perfectly incognito between all the other similar buildings around it. In this poorer neighborhood, nobody paid too much attention to who lived around them.

They dumped the car a couple streets down and walked the rest of the way. But not before stopping by a tiny supermarket - which was surprisingly still open - using the money Katya stole earlier and what they found in the truck.

The key to the apartment, they found exactly where Mason said they would; behind one of those grates in the side of the building. Luckily, Natasha had a knife in her suit that allowed them to unscrew the screws.

Too scared to take the fragile-looking elevator, they took the stairs. Everything was old, dirty, and all that used to be white was now a light yellow. Neither of them cared about that though. They'd seen dirtier shit.

Katya scrunched her nose at the stuffy and stale smell inside the apartment after she pushed the key into the lock. Her instincts told her nobody had been there in months, maybe years, but the lights were all on now. 

Because to her absolute delight - note the sarcasm - Mason stood inside the apartment, arms crossed over his chest with a teasing smile. Seriously the last person she wanted to see right now was him. 

Wait... that reminded her of something. Something she promised Yelena.

Before Natasha could set more than one step into the apartment, Katya called after her. ''Wait.''